Yesterday, after what seems like ages, A & I walked around the Jayanagar 4th block  Shopping Complex area. Did nothing in particular - ate boiled groundnuts, popcorns and would have had cotton candy if the power hadn't gone off. Bought a couple of VCDs, and then a good dinner at Krishi. Original plan was to take a short hour and half break, but we ended up being there for almost 2.5-3 hrs. Was good.

A walk in a market on a day with perfect weather just feels so much more better than time out in a mall. 

Lights out in the market; 
the young couple take in the night
sequestered from the crowd.

Current Mood: mellow

On a day of death
of people I haven't set
eyes upon, but seem to know
intimately, my mind floats
free - like this day marks
a new beginning though
the week is at an end; some
days are like that, why so
is difficult for me to say-
maybe it is that I slept
just right, maybe the tennis
was good and my forehand felt fine,
maybe it was my daughter's
joy suffused through my shirt
into my soul, maybe
it is all that and more -
never mind, it is not my place
to examine matters such;
when a buoyancy such like
clasps me, I hold on for
dear life no matter what
the rest of the world feels.

Current Mood: chipper

There are days that don't move
as they should. Some people churn
around and around, plotting
changes to make, things
to organize, tactics
to employ - I am not
one of them. The idle beaver-that
would be me. Some days run
along just fine. Some days just
don't. And that's the way they were,
and the way they always will be.
This is a lie -  I will come
around to plotting - tomorrow
if not today - hustle and bustle,
fart and empty my vessels suchlike
that my silence groans, and whispers
abound on my intentions. And then
I shall have arrived - the quientessential
organization man who moved
the days (not the cheese).
 

There is a glass window
where I sit; it looks
out into the city
with all her trees,
buildings, men and women
idling or going about
under a sunny blue sky.
One day in ten, I see
what it sees.
 

Current Mood: cheerful

Federer to collect #14
Federer to beat Nadal and Murray in back-to-back matches
Federer to win Wimbledon #6

Two out of three will be nice.

The past 2 months have been fairly good reading months. I read Two Lives and For Whom the Bell Tolls, am half-way through Direct From Dell and am about 40 pages into Somerset Maugham's Don Fernando. In addition, I also managed to do both bits and pieces of other reading, which makes me a happy cookie.

This, of course, meant that I had to make my visit to Church street again. Yesterday's haul included two Morris West books (haven't read Morris West in the longest time, and seems like a good time to revisit some of his writing), the first two books from Philip Pullman's Northern Lights trilogy, Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, Steve Wozniak's iWoz and Malcolm Bradbury's Rates of Exchange. In addition, Aparna bought Bill Bryson's A short history of nearly everything, and Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies. A good haul, and sets me back even further in catching up with my own books!

My book shelf is an almighty mess now, and am running out of space as well - one of these days, I need to organize it again, and I suppose, get another book shelf. In fact, am thinking about a whole bunch of things I need to "dispose/refresh" at home - move to LCD/plasma TV from my regular flat screen one, a new music system, replace dad's car, paint the house anew with a bit of the Royale thing thrown in, get some new furniture - seems like the right time to do my bit for India's consumption story though doing all of the above will blow a huge hole in the pocket. Let's see.

A & kiddo are off to Delhi for about 3 weeks, shortly - wondering what to do with the next 2 weekends. I desperately need to get out of Blr myself - hopefully, I can get an overnight trek thing to happen with the office gang.

Current Mood: awake

People slip away
like a fog in the morning,
the floor falls into
a noiseless trance;
awed, I imagine
a time - long gone, when
corporate real estate czars
did not stifle me -
my space, senses and vision
with a constant cacophony
of living and non-living clutter.

Sixty five square feet -
give or take a few,
is the luxury I am given
and nice as it is
to see my neighbour and hers,
hear her conversation or his,
(vice-versa, one hopes),
silence comes, but rarely;
contemplation, rarer still,
my work turns into bustle,
bustle turns into meetings,
meetings turn into work,
and work turns into hustle

I bustle and I hustle,
and managing the two
becomes my work (sometimes over lunch)
and I didn't even notice
something died between the two,
till the day the DNS died too.

Today, I read what must be the most sparkling 4 pages of fictional dialogue I have ever read. It had me waiting, it had me laughing. Out loud. It had me. I was there, if you know what I mean. Roberto didn't pull the trigger, but I almost did. 

Same book. And, I am only half way through. 

I have been making slow progress with Hemingway's "For whom the bell tolls" - it's a splendid read, but I can't seem to find the time to spare more than half-hour any given day. I love books that have a lot of dialogue - well written dialogue, that is. My considered opinion is nobody wrote/writes dialogue better than Hemingway. Local, real, effortless, character-defining and often times profound without one even realizing it. It is the conversations in the book that pull you into the story.

Golz was gay and he had wanted him to be gay too before he left, but he hadn't been.

All the best ones, when you thought it over, were gay. It was much better to be gay and it was a sign of something too. It was like having immortality while you were still alive. That was a complicated one. There were not many of them left though. No, there were not many of the gay ones left. There were very damned few of them left. And if you keep on thinking like that, my boy, you won't be left either. Turn off the thinking now, old timer, old comrade. You are a bridge blower now. Not a thinker.

Funny how the meaning of the word "gay" has changed so much since Hemmingway wrote these lines way way back. Actually, the meaning's not changed, but to use a marketing term, the "top-of-mind" association that comes to mind is contextually completely different.

I age, little knowing
my best years are still ahead
though my bones be slow.

I age little, knowing
my best years are still ahead
though my bones be slow.

Current Mood: creative

I seem to have grown weary of emails - writing in general.  Can't seem to summon the desire or the will to reply to long pending mails, send new year wishes, acknowledge/comment on interesting posts, whatever else. A passing phase, I hope. 


The holidays were good, though the year didn't begin all that well. Dec 20 - 27, I lazed at home, played tennis, watched Ghajini, read books, saw TV, blah blah. 28th - 1st, I was off to Coastal Karnataka on a vacation with family - parents, in-laws, wife and kid. Hit the beaches of Gokarna, Karwar, Kumta, Udupi, Murdeshwar, St. Mary's island, and appeased the Gods as well - Mookambika, Udupi Krishna, and various other temples along the way. Woke up at 5:30  on 1st Jan with an uneasy stomach and ended up spending the rest of the day and the next, dealing with a bad case of food poisoning. The virus spread from me to N, and we had to admit her on 3rd after she threw up just about anything we fed her. Still recovering - it's a sad sight to see an energetic little devil looking downright weary ten minutes after she starts playing. Hopefully, she will be in fine fettle in a day or two. 


The trip ended up being far more hectic than I had planned for. I enjoyed it anyway, as did the grandparents, but A didn't have much fun, what with having to feed the baby every 3 hours or so. I thought with the grandparents around, it woudn't be that difficult, but it still was. She didn't help herself much, carrying exam papers to correct during the trip. Some people are way too dedicated. Stupidly so, at times :-) Next time, I have to make sure she doesn't carry work along.  


Back to the grind now. It's always tough getting back to work after a long vacation. My vacations are far and few between, and that makes it doubly difficult getting the work groove back on. 

...Awesome trek to Ramanagaram happened this Saturday. Plan was to trek one of the hills in the area, and I had shortlisted Sri Revana Siddeshwara (SRS) Betta after checking out some of the articles on the net. This was about 15 kms from Ramanagaram on the Road to Kanakapura. We reached there only to realize that it was just a small rocky hill with a temple at the top & steps(!) all the way up! That, of course, ruled that hill out. Thankfully, we noticed just a little ahead, on the opposite side, another hill that looked just right. We drove further along towards the hill, but couldn't quite figure out where to begin the trek from. Stopped a passing motorcyclist, and after checking with him, we parked our cars at the bus-stop near the foot of the hill, and began the ascent.

As with our previous trek, we had picked the hill on a whim and had no clue as to the right way up. Last time, we figured out the right way somehow. This time, we weren't so lucky. About one-fifth the way up, we realized we had hit a dead-end; this huge boulder & dense foliage through which there was no way through. While the others tried to find an alternate route, in an unusual sense of adventure, I ventured further up through an opening the rest had not seen. Was able to forge my way up and thought I had found a good route. Called out to the rest of the junta to join me, which they duly did. Biggest mistake of the trek. That turned out to be just the wrong route to take. Very soon we were scraping our way past thorny bushes trying to find openings where there werent' any. Everytime we reached a clearing, we would heave a sigh of relief, only to realize a few minutes later that one clearing maketh not a trekking route. On we went anyway, and finally ended up at this rock face (pic below), the only way past which seemed to be a vertical climb up it. I took one tentative step up before I decided that discretion was the better of valour and decided not to attempt any such manoeuvre. Of the seven of us, only KR was brave enough to try it & successfully scaled the rock face. The rest of us decided to stay put & figure out alternate routes. 



KR subsequently went on his own way, and the six of us looked for alternate routes, and after much moving back & forth, finally figured out a way to reach the top. What had seemed like a relatively simple hill to climb turned out to be a real adventure, with the result that we took over 2 hours to reach the top. Took in the view, clicked a few snaps, talked stuff for a while - about 40 minutes or so. And then began the descent. Must have been close to 12 when we started on our way down. We didn't want to take the same route down, but were hopeful of finding an easier way. As it turned out, there was one - the regular trekking route on the other side of the hill, but taking that would have meant we da 5 km road walk to reach our cars! That ruled out the easy option and we were wondering what course to take, when a village kid hanging around near the top volunteered to show us an alternate route down. He did help us descend quickly, but it was an even more painstaking descent than the ascent. He led us through thorny bushes that were just right for him to squeeze through. We had to literally be on all fours at places, bend as far down as we possibly could, and despite all that, couldn't quite avoid a nick or two.



In any case, we were back at the base just before 1:30. Drove down to Kamat for a delightful North Karnataka meal before heading back home.

In hindsight, we were quite lucky we didn't step on a snake or two given the general haphazardness of the trek. But it really was a fun trek, and the view from the top made it all worthwhile. Easily one of the top 2-3 Bangalore treks.

The office trekking group has expanded a fair bit since the early days 2 years ago, with the result that the treks are a much more frequent occurrence. We even have a mailing list now. Of the founding four, if I can call it that :-), one has left HP, but the other three of us are still going strong. The flipside of more frequent treks is that I have to necessarily miss a few - else the wife would ask me to settle down in Ramanagaram itself. Nevertheless, I have been on 4 treks in the last 5 odd months, which is a darn good rate. Next up is Kumarparvat, easily the toughest yet - likely to be in the Jan 26th weekend. I think I will have to skip that, but let's see. The next post, I will list the treks we have done so far.

...Not really. But that is the sort of juxtaposition that happens when you read Eats, Shoots & Leaves and follow it up with The Waterworks. You end up reading a ripping good yarn through a grammarian's lens.

Lynne Truss's book had been lying on my shelf for the longest time, and finally, a month ago, I got around to reading it; with some trepidation, I must admit. I know my its from my it's, but I don't really fancy myself as a grammar person. With good reason, as I was to find out when I ventured into Lynne's world, a world where full stops, commas, semicolons, colons, hyphens, apostrophes and the like seemed to radiate joy, anger and distress; mostly, the latter; with regards to their use and abuse. Most entertaining, I must confess. Possibly, the best book I have read this year - did you know there are some 7 appropriate uses for the comma? Or was that for the semicolon?

As you may have noticed, I have suddenly developed a fondness for semicolons, which is not two words, by the way.

In the meantime, I had paid a visit to Blossoms & Bookworms - my quarterly homage to second hand bookstores, and picked up a dozen books. E.L. Doctorow's "The Waterworks", among them. Not an author I have read before, but someone I have heard a fair bit of in the past - one of those literary sorts' is what I had thought. I am about 2/5ths done with the book, and I must say, literary, I certainly find him. Alongside that, though, eminently readable. Unlike, say, a Salman Rushdie - someone, I have, to this day, never been able to appreciate much (btw, the wife picked up Midnight's Children - one in the dozen, and chances are, the least likely to be read end-to-end). I had also picked up a collection of short stories by Doctorow and I am much looking forward to that once I am done with this book. I think I will pick up a few more of his works as well, in due course. However, one thing I have noticed about Doctorow is that he uses a surfeit of ellipsis's (...), which, if not for Madame Lynne, I would have paid scant attention to. And, if I have understood Lynne correctly, his usage isn't always appropriate either. Tut, Tut, Mr. Doctorow.

In other news, the recession has hit - pretty direct impact, as well. But more on that, some other time. Matters of commerce are out of place in a post about books, no?

Lynne, by the way, rails a fair bit about the predisposition of my generation - or maybe, it's the one after - to use ellipsis and dashes (not hyphens). Guilty, your honour.

Current Mood: productive

A stillness streams
through; it is as if
all motion has ceased
within and without;
sounds seep into my ears -
a carpenter's saw
in some distance,
a steady hum
somewhere close by;
indistinct voices
of a sultry afternoon,
someone on the phone;
all is as it should be.

Wonder where's vijucat? Anybody here in touch with him?

Noticed my posts have become rather infrequent over the last few months. Been fairly busy - that's one factor, but that's not the only thing, I guess. Family time, active investing in the markets, facebook among others have been some of the other reasons.

Did a quiz on Saturday after a long time. Quite enjoyed preparing the quiz, and I thought it went off quite well too. Took part in my first ever "rally" on Sunday - marched with a few hundered others affiliated to "Hasiru Usiru", from Lal Bagh West Gate to Town Hall to protest against the incessant road-widening and tree-cutting going on in Bangalore. I am not actively political, but I quite enjoyed the walk.

I doubt things will change in any way, but still...

..It is interesting, the way quizzing rewires one's mind. Today morning, on the way to work, I was going through this World Atlas book (that A had left behind in the car), and very quickly found myself absorbed in the world of maps. Last month, I had started putting together a document to collate questions for any future quizzes. I did that for a week, but as with most things where there are no deadlines/milestones to meet, that effort died a quick death. The document had been lying on my desktop - not much used, not much seen. So, I was going through this Atlas, and I remembered that document - and funnily, I managed to put together what I think are four reasonably interesting questions by just looking at the maps and the preface to the Atlas.

It's also quite fascinating the thoughts maps can put into one's mind. I have been reading this book "The Island of Lost Maps" off and on over the last couple of months. A very fascinating book, even if somewhat uneven. Miles Harvey, the author, writes, among other things, of his life-long fascination with maps, and the psychological effects they have had on him. In today's 45 minute drive to the office, I found myself relating to him a fair bit - just looking at well-known places I haven't though of in a long long while, odd-ball places with names that reflect one-or-the-other adventurer's flights of fancy - brought back the sheen of a world that still is heterogenous & full of different possibilities though we so often perceive it as one homogenous global village.

Come to think of it, it's so strange then that not too long ago, I found myself doing location assessments that called for assessing Tunis, Casablanca, Bangalore, Cairo, Bucharest, Budapest, Odessa, Hanoi and so many other places all over the world in terms of their "attractiveness" for BPO delivery. This whole "cost perception" of the world, if one were to just reflect a bit, is so terribly sad really.

Back to work now. :-)

Malcolm Gladwell writes about Late Bloomers - http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/10/20/081020fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all

Terrific read. Discipline - so much in life depends on it.

And, I should find myself a patron ;-)

...happened on Saturday. Was good fun. Usual gang. Deverabetta is near Thally, 3-4 kms off the Anekkal road, and about 15 kms further on from Muthal Mudiyu falls. This was the first trek we did without a destination in mind. I had convinced the others that Thally was just gorgeously beautiful and we could find some place to trek. Turned out that while that route is indeed beautiful, it's not really dotted with hills. So, it was a bit of a relief to spot this hill.

When we reached there, we realized that the hill wasn't actually worth climbing, but what was intriguing was this vast forest terrain extending all around. We noticed a couple of dirt tracks, went down one to do a quick inspection of the milieu. This track ended quickly at a large rock, from where we could survey the entire forest area. We noticed a hill about 3-4 kms further on, and a few more hills beyond that. The only worry was the forest seemed completely uninhabited and we weren't really sure how safe it would be. But with Vasant & Bharat around, there wasn't much hope for wary souls like me or Ashwin. Led by the intrepid duo, the rest of us headed into the forest in the general direction of the hill. Happily, the forest wasn't too dense, though we had to negotiate a thorny bush or two. Midway through we reached a small lake that looked like a watering hole for the wildlife around. Thankfully, there weren't any to bother us, and keeping a close watch for crocodiles, we walked along the lake and past it. Another 2 kms or so, and we had reached the base of the hill. The foliage was particularly dense just before we reached the base, and I wasn't too keen on going ahead. V & B did a quick reconnaissance and convinced us to head on. Just as well, as we were almost immediately at the base of the hill. The hill itself was more of a hillock actually, I would be stretching things to the limit to call the ascent even remotely strenuous. We were at the top in another 5-10 minutes, and we settled down there to talk about what the whole world is talking about - The Financial Meltdown. Here's the view from the top of the hill..



Another day, we may have ventured further, but it was quite hot, and we didn't really feel like going further into the unknown. So, we headed back, stopping for a while near the lake to skip stones along the water and to see who could throw a stone the farthest. Exciting, no! :-) Abhishek won the skipping the stones contest, and Ashwin won the farthest throw contest. I was the worst at skipping the stones thing, pretty much every attempt I made ending with the stone sinking without a trace! Childhood skills aren't supposed to vanish just like that, no? :-)

Around 12:15 or so, we were back at the temple. Plan was to stop at Muthal Mudiyu on the way back, but we lost our way bit, and ended up doing a 10 km detour before we hit Muthal Mudiyu. Didn't really go down, as it didn't seem like there was much water. Ended up having lunch at Karnataka Tourism's Mayura hotel there which was a one man show - the dude took the orders, served the food, and probably cooked it as well - with the result that we ended up being there for almost 2 hours! Stopped again at Nisarga layout on the way back for a cuppa chai, and was back home by 5:15. An hour longer than my usual day trek, funny really, given that this was a relatively easy trek compared to the last few.

All said and done, great fun once again. The only regret - no great snaps this time since none of us took a camera. This one's from a Samsung mobile - not bad really, for a 2 mpx phone camera.